New DSD downloads from Acoustic Sounds - Superhirez.com

Yes, I suppose caveat emptor applies to anything anyone sells, ever.

But at least if Acoustic Sounds advertises a product you purchase as a "180 Gram Vinyl Record" and they instead send you needle-drop burned to a CD-R, you typically have some recourse to say "hey, you sent me the wrong thing!" and likely get it exchanged or refunded.

In the specific case of Acoustic Sounds' "Super HiRez" store, they are explicitly advertising a product that "... offers audio quality that far surpasses that of the CD..." and is "audiophile-quality." That sounds pretty close to a guarantee to me.

Yet when I contact them to ask about specific titles, and they respond by saying they have ZERO information about the source, then it does indeed open up the possibility that they might have received from the record label - and are passing on to their customers who are paying a premium price - a digital download that is sourced from a 44.1kHz/16-bit CD. Basically, THEY claim that they don't even know what they're selling. Yet they reassure/promise us on their own website that whatever we buy and download from Super HiRez will be far superior to a CD. How can they seem so certain conceptually in their marketing copy, yet be so uncertain in reality when I contact them directly?

That's troubling to me.

Most needle-drops, soundboard recordings of live shows, etc., on torrent sites provide vastly more detailed and informative lineage information than "legitimate" digital download retailers like Super HiRez and HDTracks.

Craig.

 

New DSD

Nat King Cole / The Extraordinary
Bobby Hutcherson / Linger Lane
Lynyrd Skynyrd / Nuthin' Fancy
Lynyrd Skynyrd / Second Helping
Sonny Boy Williamson / Keep It To Ourselves

 

New DSD:

Soundgarden / Superunknown

 

New DSD:


Bob Dylan / Another Side Of Bob Dylan
Bob Dylan / The Freewheelin' Bob Dylan

 

Michael Jackson - Thriller

While listening to this DSD file tonight, I remembered back to that first time I heard hi-rez music played back properly. All the adjectives apply here. I whole heartily agree with your observations above. I'm looking forward to being further amazed by more of these DSD downloads.

 

Has anyone listened to the MLP Starker Bach Cello Suites? Anyone know the background behind the files they are selling? (Ie., provided by someone, ripped directly off of a retail SACD, etc.)

 

New DSD:

Bob Dylan / Bringing It All Back Home
Bob Dylan / Highway 61 Revisited
Bob Dylan / Blonde on Blonde
Bob Dylan / John Wesley Harding
Bob Dylan / Nashville Skyline
Bob Dylan / Planet Waves
Bob Dylan / Blood on the Tracks
Bob Dylan / Street Legal
Bob Dylan / Slow Train Coming
Bob Dylan / Infidels
Bob Dylan / Oh Mercy
Bob Dylan / Love And Theft

 

I saw the DSD files for Aerosmith's Toys In The Attic so I was praying they would upload the DSD files for the unreleased Rocks SACD.

I asked if they would upload the DSD files for Rocks and they told me they can only upload what the label has given them.

 

Can you tell if the DSD files on Acoustic Sounds for Toys are the same as for the old SACD?

 

What DACs are you guys using to decode DSD? And I assume you're feeding those DACs straight from a computer or NAS?

 

Anyone know if the Dylan Blood on the Tracks DSD is the same mastering as the 96/24 also on sale there?

 

New DSD:

Bob Dylan / Desire

 

New DSD:

Quicksilver Messenger Service / Quicksilver Messenger Service
Quicksilver Messenger Service/ Happy Trails
Canned Heat / Living The Blues
Canned Heat / Boogie With Canned Heat

 

New DSD from Wilson Audiophile:

David Abel/ Julie Steinberg / Debussy/ Brahms/ Bartok: Sonatas For Violin and Piano
Lowell Graham / Winds of War & Peace
Hyperion Knight / Music of Chopin
David Abel/ Julie Steinberg / Beethoven Violin Sonata, Op. 96 - Enescu Violin Sonata, Op. 25
James Welch / Concert
James Welch / Recital
James Welch / Music for Christmas - In Concert at Stanford Memorial Church
Hyperion Knight / Beethoven Sonata in C Major, Op. 53 - Stravinsky Petrushka
John Fenstermaker / John Fenstermaker plays French Organ Music

 

New DSD:

Isley Brothers / 3 + 3
The O'Jays / Ship Ahoy

 

Are these from the SACDs?

 

Yes.

 

Be warned, both these SACD's are brickwalled.

 

???

3+3 - http://www.sa-cd.net/showtitle/676

Ship - http://www.sa-cd.net/showtitle/694

 

You can't trust reviews on that website, they are biased IMO.

 

Really? I've never heard either one, but that's the first I can recall someone claiming that. Plus most of the early Sony SACDs, while not perfect, are not brickwalled at all.

 

Most of them are okay, but a few are compressed and I have the waveforms to prove it.

 

Compressed and brickwalled are two different things...which is it?

 

Isley Brothers: 3+3 (SACD rip) = DR9

http://dr.loudness-war.info/album/view/18842

The O'Jays: Ship Ahoy (2003 CD remaster, could be from the same mastering session as the SACD) = DR10

http://dr.loudness-war.info/album/view/54249

 

Here's a picture of one of the waveforms. You can judge for yourself.

http://i.imgur.com/vRHONxc.jpg